Move or loft conversion?

[nellyjelly]

Live in a terrace with small backyard and 2.5 bedrooms. Poor DS is in the .5 room and once he is too big for his toddler bed we will need more space.

We had planned to move but in our price range, in the area we live, we can only afford 1930s semis, most of which have had any features ripped out. The good thing is that we would gain a decent garden and off street parking but sizewise, we won't get much and the kitchen is smaller than what we have now.

Don't want to commit to a big mortgage as my job a bit iffy so considering loft extension with a Dorma and an ensuite shower room/toilet. Have no idea of cost. Guessing £20 - £30 thou? (North West). Plus is we get to live in the same street, which we like, get extra bedroom but don't gain a garden or off street parking which would be great. And we lose loft storage space.

Should we move? Should we accept the limitations of the affordable house, max out the mortgage and get a much bigger house or build up?

Any experiences or advice gratefully received.

I've been thinking this myself. We've changed our minds loads of times, but I think we're going to move. To put in permanent stairs would take a slice off an already smallish bedroom, and as the footprint of our house is so small, we'd only gain a small loft bedroom.

Yes know what you mean about the footprint remaining the same. We woukd still be stuck with a small garden but we live next to a park so that isn't a massive issue.

Thing is we need a 4 bed house tbh to get the space but is beyond us financially.

We have the same problem but:

We have a very large landing and would not need to sacrifice any existing bedroom space for the staircase.

We would gain a large double bedroom with ensuite and eaves storage in the loft.

Quotes have come in at £20-30k (lowest non-VAT sole trader from our village using other sole traders to help and highest being vat registered building company).

I really don't think for £25k we could move and get a house of our standard (just had new kitchen and bathroom) and get 3 doubles and 1 single bedroom and 1 bathroom, 1 ensuite & downstairs loo. I'd say £7k would be swallowed in stamp duty, EA fees, survey, removals company etc leaving £18k for new house. Not a lot really... Not where I live anyway!

We had a very good loft conversion, but with a high pitched roof it meant quite a lot of extra room, not some squashed little space, we lost a wardrobe space for the stairs.

Do your research, and work with a fixed price only. We went with a big well known company.

Thanks

E are literally just looking into this too but the way our loft is, we would need to raise the roof. S instead, have just found truss loft.co.uk who make your new roof and loft space to fit your house and lift it on using a massive crane! It is amazing and we got a quote for about £30k. You don't have to move out and you are only without water for one day.

Now is a good time to be teasing up the ladder.

You may not lose loft storage space.

We recently had a loft conversion. We have loads of storage space in two eaves cupboards, and it's far more accessible, because you don't have to climb a ladder to get to it!

If you haven't already, I'd do a spreadsheet of the sums with actual quotes both for a loft conversion and moving. I'd get an estate agent around too, to give some feedback on what adding a loft room could do for your value?

We went through this at the last house and opted to move. I think we went for our gut instinct that the location of the busy road wasn't going to go away...

In this house we decided on a loft conversion as we really wanted a 4 bed, but for us that could possibly take us into the next stamp duty band and that wasn't something we wanted to contemplate!

Our loft conversion is almost finished. The quote was £37K inc (London) but does include removal of chimney breasts in 2 of the 1st floor bedrooms which we were quoted previously 5K from a chimney co.

Re costs. Be prepared for extras. Our ye olde roof titles were too brittle to go back on, so we needed new tiles which was an additional £2K. Also to pass building control we were given option of all new fire doors or fire alarms in each room, we went for doors, c£1.5K. There could also be extra costs if your plumbing or electrics aren't up to being run into the loft. We were warned about all of this, but worth asking the companies who give you quotes what these would cost.

It also depends on your house, but realistically we are going to want new hall carpet to run up the 2 sets of stairs (they have covered our current carpet but with the new stairs cut in, the 1st floor landing will need lots of patching up and I am concerned the 2 stairs will look different with 2 years difference between the age of the carpet) & the hall will need to be redecorated. Obviously this can be left until cash reserves have been built back up.

I think stair development has come on. On our first floor the original box room was used as an office area outside an extension over the garage which provided a little larger than box room bedroom. This space is still there, the stairs haven't eaten into it at all. So we could put the office back there or use this space for storage.

The storage doesn't look too bad up there. I think it depends if you have finished having DC. Most of our loft stuff was DC related which once DD is here in a couple of weeks (all being well) is going to be sold/recycled etc.

HTH. Good luck with your decision.

Take into account the actual moving costs, especially stamp duty, if you sell and buy, and also the fact that if you do a home extension the council tax stays the same until you sell it on - at which stage the house may go up a band in council tax to take account of the conversion. In a new house you will probably be in a higher band.

We moved from a Victorian terrace to a 20s/30s semi and I actually prefer the more square rooms of the semi. It's good having access to the garden which isn't through the house, too. I think you get better value in a 30s semi as they are not as fashionable as Victorian terraces - not in our area, anyway.